Member Review: John Prine

Member 90210 wrote:

John Prine has a story he likes to tell about the time he thought he had finished recording a new album, only to find that the record producer wanted him to write one more song for the disc.
“I thought, ‘I’ll show him – I’ll write the worst thing he’s ever heard,’” the 62-year-old singer-songwriter remembered during his concert on Saturday night at the Warfield.
The fact that the resulting effort was “Fish and Whistle,” an unbearably catchy country-flavored tune that has since become a true fan favorite, only confirms my longstanding suspicion: Prine simply can’t write a bad song.
Oh, but he sure can pen some great ones, and that’s all that fans heard during the folk-rock star’s 24-song, two-hour set.
Prine’s tunes come in three distinct flavors: funny, sad and sad but funny. It’s hard to think of another singer-songwriter on the planet that handles both heartbreak and humor as convincingly as this former mailman from Maywood, Illinois.

Whenever there is talk about the greatest singer/songwriters in rock history, the usual suspects are always named: Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Smokey Robinson, etc. Any such discussion, however, is incomplete without the mention of John Prine.
During his performance, Prine, now almost 62, gave the capacity crowd 23 excellent reasons for why he should be ranked among popular music's all-time great wordsmiths. Kicking off the show with the sing-along favorite "Spanish Pipedream," Prine proceeded to mix humor and sorrow, joy and frustration, as naturally in his songs as they blend in real life. That ability is the No. 1 thing that separates Prine from most other folk-rockers. There's not another guy (or gal) on the planet, with or without a guitar in hand, that can take a listener from being teary-eyed one moment to giggling the next as quickly, and as convincingly, as John Prine.

Play List

1. Spanish Pipedream
2. Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)
3. Souvenirs
4. Far From Me
5. Please Don't Bury Me
6. Fish and Whistle (great story about how he wrote that song)
7. Glory of True Love
8. Crazy as a Loon
9. Angel from Montgomery
10. Long Monday
11. Donald and Lydia
12. Bottomless Lake
13. Mexican Home
14. Dear Abby
15. Sam Stone
16. Bear Creek
17. That's Alright By Me
18. She Is My Everything
19. Ain't Hurtin' Nobody
20. Hello in There
21. Lake Marie
22. People Putting People Down

encore
23. Paradise.

Hopefully I got all the titles right because Bottomless Lake and That's Alright by Me were new to me. We spent about 10 minutes talking backstage and he told a few great stories of days gone by. He jokingly told me “I don’t know why, in my early songs, I always killed off the main character................There goes the sequel.”

Thanks to BackstagePassDirect for comin' thru for me.

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Sonic Youth 2009 Tour

Sonic Youth started a brief trip last week to Austria and Germany, including a performance at 3001 in Dusseldorf in coordination with the art show Sensational Fix. Shows will be in Krems, Munich, and Dusseldorf. Then, Sonic Youth will make a brief return at the end of May to Europe. Shows will be in Malmo on May 27 and at the Siesta Festival on May 28. The opening of the Sensational Fix art show at The Museum of Malmo will be held on May 29. May 30 SY will perform at the Primavera festival in Barcelona. Just added to this trip: May 31 at the Kilbi Festival in Dudingen, Switzerland.

The Summer U.S. tour in support of their upcoming June 9 release, The Eternal, kicks off on June 28. Here's the complete lineup of venues:

June 28th – Chicago, IL – Vic Theater

June 29th – Royal Oak, MI – Royal Oak Music Theatre

July 2nd – Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory

July 3rd – New York, NY – United Palace Theatre

July 6th – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club

July 8th – Richmond, VA – The National

July 10th – Knoxville, TN – Bijou Theater

July 11th – Nashville, TN – War Memorial

July 12th – Birmingham, AL – Sloss Furnaces

July 13th – Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse

July 15th – Dallas, TX – House of Blues

July 16th – Tulsa, OK – Cain’s

July 18th – Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theater

July 20th – Milwaukee, WI – Turner Hall

July 21st – Minneapolis, MN – First Ave

July 23rd – Boise, ID – Knitting Factory

July 25th – Seattle, WA – Capitol Hill Block Party

July 28th – Portland, OR – Roseland Ballroom

July 30th – Salt Lake City, UT – Twilight Music Fest

July 31st – Denver, CO – Ogden Theater

August 2nd – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater

Ever see a show from backstage? Wanna meet your favorite performers? BackstagePassDirect is your source for passes; join today.

Review: Paul McCartney @Coachella

From several sources comes this compiled review of Paul on Day One of Coachella:

Hip comes and hip goes, but McCartney proved once again, a great pop song lasts forever. Energized by the desert air and memory of his late wife, a playful and passionate Paul McCartney riffed on "Foxy Lady," led an after-midnight "Hey Jude" singalong and dedicated songs to his former bandmates at the Coachella music festival that kicked off Friday.

McCartney took off his black jacket five songs in and didn't put it back on for the next 29, strutting the stage in boots, black pants, a white shirt and suspenders that he tugged at wryly.

"It's going to be a good weekend, dear," he told the crowd of thousands gathered for the three-day festival, which erupted in cheers with the first chords of Beatles tunes like "Eleanor Rigby." It was McCartney's first appearance at a U.S. festival as a solo artist.

The Beatle performed for nearly three hours, delighting fans with a career-spanning set, and one that went well past the midnight curfew for music on the main stage imposed by the city of Indio. In the set, including two encores, McCartney dedicated "Long and Winding Road" and "My Love Does It Good" to his late wife Linda, who died at the couple's ranch at Tucson, Ariz., 11 years earlier to the day.

"It's an emotional day for me. That's good, that's OK," he said, pounding his chest. "Lot of heart, lot of emotion."

Before a moving performance of "Blackbird," he noted that it had been written in response to the 60s civil rights movement. "Now you've got President Obama. Yeah, you know we've come a long way."

Switching from serious to cheerily self-aware, he led call-and-response chants only to wave them off quickly as "messing around," and dismissed signs held by front-row fans — including one that asked for his guitar pick.

"No! It's mine!" McCartney said. "Anyway, if I make a mistake, I can blame the signs."

McCartney launched brightly into "Something" with only his voice and a ukulele he said was given to him by George Harrison, before his band mates and the crowd joined in.

There were mistakes. McCartney was proficient but sometimes out-of-sync with the four-man band backing him. But he clearly enjoyed himself, plowing through songs from his "Fireman" album, "Band on the Run" from the Wings, and Fab Four favorites like "Back in the USSR," "Paperback Writer" and, for the finale, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

The first day of the festival also featured Morrissey, Leonard Cohen, the Hold Steady, Franz Ferdinand and the Ting Tings.

There are plenty of great festivals still on tap for the months ahead. Request your passes by joining BackstagePassDirect today.

Summer Fests

Despite the down economy, fans are still buying tickets to the big summer music festivals, lured by layaway programs and, in one case, a former Beatle.

This weekend, California's Coachella Music and Arts Festival kicks off the summer music festival season with some of the biggest names in the business—and they're all heading to a polo field southeast of Palm Springs.

In the 1990s, rock shows such as Ozzfest and Lilith Fair hopped between every metro amphitheater in the country, but some of today's most popular music festivals are multi-day concert events held in deserts, gorges and big-city parks.

Here are this year's Biggies:

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
Dates: April 17–19
Location: Indio, Calif. (146 miles east of Los Angeles)
Headliners: Paul McCartney, the Killers, the Cure, Morrissey, Paul Weller, Leonard Cohen

Stagecoach Country Music Festival
Dates: April 25–26
Location: Indio, Calif.
Headliners: Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker, Reba McEntire, Kid Rock, Kevin Costner

Sasquatch Music Festival at the Gorge
Dates: May 23–25
Location: George, Wash. (150 miles southeast of Seattle)
Headliners: Kings of Leon, Jane's Addiction, TV on the Radio, Nine Inch Nails, Ben Harper

Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival
Dates: June 11–14
Location: Manchester, Tenn. (66 miles southeast of Nashville)
Headliners: Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, Phish, Lucinda Williams, Snoop Dogg, MGMT

Rothbury Music and Arts Festival
Dates: July 2–5
Location: Rothbury, Mich. (200 miles west of Detroit)
Headliners: Bob Dylan and His Band, the Dead, Willie Nelson, Black Crowes, Ani DiFranco

Summerfest: The World's Largest Music Festival
Dates: June 25–July 5
Location: Milwaukee
Headliners: Bon Jovi, Conor Oberst, No Doubt, George Strait, Asher Roth, the Fray, Judas Priest

Essence Music Festival
Dates: July 3–5
Location: New Orleans Superdome
Headliners: Beyoncé, John Legend, Lionel Richie, Maxwell, Anita Baker, Al Green, Ne-Yo, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings

All Points West Music & Arts Festival
Dates: July 31–August 2
Location:Liberty State Park, N.J. (on the edge of New York Harbor, in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty)
Headliners: Coldplay, Beastie Boys, My Bloody Valentine, Tool, Echo & the Bunnymen, Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Lollapalooza
Dates: August 7–9
Location:Grant Park, Chicago
Headliners: TBA next week

Outside Lands
Dates: August 28–30
Location: Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Headliners: Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band, Beastie Boys, Incubus, Black Eyed Peas, M.I.A., Jason Mraz, Ween

BackstagePassDirect has a limited number of backstage passes for these multi-day events. Make your requests early!

Member Review: Nickelback

Member Nicklmaniac wrote:

Nickelback has spent years dodging the slings and arrows -- not to mention knives, bottles, bricks and small mammals -- launched at them by an outraged music press.

Despite the insistence of music press tastemakers that Nickelback is quite simply the worst thing ever to be recorded on to any audio format, the band continues to sell boatloads of CDs. Why? you ask.

Chad Kroeger told me back in 2000 when Nickelback was touring its second album, The State, people just want to hear something they can sing along to in the car. That's really it; the group's songs are catchy.

Simplistic, sure, but he was onto something as almost a decade later Nickelback is one of the most successful rock bands of the past 20 years.

Last night's show featured a few songs from Nickelback's latest release, Dark Horse, which rode off with Album of the Year at last weekend's Juno Awards.

But it was the hits that the crowd came to hear and Nickelback delivered them -- Photograph, Savin' Me, Figured You Out and Far Away were just a few that got the audience on their feet during the first half of the show.

The band loves its pyrotechnics and used them several times throughout the show, including the first song, Something In Your Mouth.

Chad, along with brother and bass player Mike Kroeger, guitarist Ryan Peake and drummer Daniel Adair played with an impressive energy and confidence.

It's really funny. The band really does have some of the worst lyrics in modern rock history. Something In Your Mouth and Figured You Out are the worst offenders, bearing the brunt of Kroeger's ham-fisted double entendres and somewhat sexist humour. But I will give Kroeger credit for standing his ground and making music for the everyman when he's been told time and again it's not the cool thing to do.

The "Meet and Greet" with the band was a little shorter than I would have liked, but I enjoyed the time very much and was able to catch up with them about what's been happening over the last 9 years.

I've read a couple of reviews here recently where the writer forget to give props to BackstagePassDirect. Not me. BPD - you're Numero Uno!

Back atcha Nicklmaniac.

For those of you who are getting psyched up for this great concert season, BackstagePassDirect is the way to go for getting backstage to hang with your favorite bands. If you haven't already, join today!

Ben Harper and the Relentless 7

Hot on the heels of his killer performance at the "Change Begins Within" benefit in NYC with Paul and Ringo, Ben Harper has plugged his guitar back in and cranked up the amp for his new album White Lies For Dark Times. It's an 11-song set soaked with hard rock and the deep Delta blues. “It’s a sound I’ve been looking for and reaching for in my mind.”...................which means the album is more Cream than Jack Johnson, more “Faded” than “Steal My Kisses.”

But while there's more fuzz in the riffs and thunder in the beats, the lyrics are still quintessential Harper, singing, "It takes a hundred miles of love to heal a mile of pain" on "Shimmer and Shine."

In addition to being his heaviest offering, the album is also his first with the Relentless7 — guitarist Jason Mozersky, drummer Jordan Richardson and bassist Jesse Ingalls — the trio of Austin-based musicians previously worked on Harper's 2006 album Both Sides of the Gun. Harper said that he first heard Mozersky when a particularly insistent van driver blared a demo while carrying Harper to an Austin gig.

The release date for the album is May 5; the tour kicks off a few days before on the 2nd. Here are the dates and venues for May:

05/02/09 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse

05/04/09 Washington, DC 9:30 Club

05/05/09 New York, NY Webster Hall

05/08/09 Brooklyn, NY Music Hall Of Williamsburg

05/09/09 Philadelphia, PA Theatre Of The Living Arts

05/10/09 Boston, MA Paradise Rock Club

05/15/09 Detroit, MI St. Andrews Hall

05/16/09 Chicago, IL Vic Theatre

05/25/09 Quincy, WA Gorge Amphitheatre

05/27/09 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore

05/28/09 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern

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Member Review: Fleetwood Mac

Member TwoTimer wrote to us:

"As you know, Fleetwood Mac has a convoluted and emotional history," Lindsay Buckingham wink-winked to me backstage. "We take breaks, long breaks, and every time we reconvene it's a little different. This time, we just said let's go out and have some fun."

It would seem that time heals all wounds.

Sure; their 1978 Grammy-winning album, Rumours, filled us in on all the details. Stevie-Lindsay, Mick-Stevie, John-Christine, Christine-lighting guy-etc. It's what gave songs like Go Your Own Way, Second Hand News and Dreams an almost voyeuristic feel.

But they stuck to the game plan last night. On drums, Fleetwood -- the ponytail, so prominent on the Rumours album cover, now grey -- sported a perma-grin. Buckingham teased the crowd by hinting at an upcoming album. "With no album to promote -- yet," he said, "we thought we'd sing the songs we all love."

And Nicks was warm and engaging in her black top and grey skirt -- and later, ruby dress and gold shawl, and even later, black dress and top hat -- that flowed when she swayed and twirled in that familiar hippie-like dance.

Proof of the reconciliation was in the encore. Stevie's Silver Springs, which reportedly caused a row when Mick cut it from Rumours, was the closer last night. Apology apparently accepted.

So while there may not have been much sexual tension on stage last night -- Stevie did lay her head tenderly on Lindsay's shoulder at the end of Sara -- there was plenty of good music. The songs stand up on their own, without the "convoluted history."

They sang most of their greatest hits last night, but not all. They couldn't, not without Christine. Over My Head, You Make Lovin' Fun, and Little Lies wouldn't be the same without her distinct lead vocals. Nicks and Buckingham attempted Say That You Love Me, which was sung by McVie on their self-titled album, but it didn't sound quite right. Nicks fared better on the second verse of Don't Stop, which was McVie's. But, hey, if Bill Clinton could sing it during his 1993 presidential campaign, anybody can.

Regardless, Nicks and Buckingham sing vocals on enough Fleetwood Mac hits to easily fill out a three-hour concert. If it was Nicks, instead, who wasn't there, they wouldn't have attempted Rhiannon, Gypsy and certainly not her solo hit, Stand Back.

And for me, that was a pretty good trade-off.

There's nothing quite like being backstage, meeting band members and seeing how a show really happens. If you're not already a member of BackstagePassDirect, join today.